Tim Hailstone, Chronicle, March 16, commends the Stoke Fleming Neighbourhood Plan only to those who wish the parish to become “even more of a retirement community than it is now”, instead of modernising and becoming larger.

The neighbourhood plan is based on nearly four years of consultation with the people of the parish. It was rightly the views, comments, suggestions and criticisms that they expressed that drove the development of the plan.

It was not the function of the steering group to dictate what the plan would contain – though it did throughout point out the advantages that growth have conferred on Stoke Fleming over recent decades.

The detailed views of those who responded to the various rounds of consultation are set out in full in the 76-page consultation statement that forms one of the three statutory elements of the plan, the others being the main plan document and the basic conditions statement that sets out how the plan complies with various requirements at district, national and EU level.

As far as we know, Mr Hailstone did not attend any of the public consultation meetings that were held, nor did he respond to any of the other consultation initiatives during the four years that the plan has been in preparation. We therefore have had no opportunity to discuss the developing content of the plan with him.

Early drafts of the plan made it clear that the steering group envisaged up to 60 new homes in the village, in addition to the major proposed development at Cotton that now is for 450 homes, and which will be almost entirely within Stoke Fleming parish.

We supported the first development of 200-plus homes at Cotton but have argued for around 400 now rather than the 450 in the second stage application now proposed by the developer.

That reflects our attitude to growth and development intended to maintain both Dartmouth and Stoke Fleming as vibrant communities.

However, two things caused our original intention for new homes in the village to be changed.

The first was that South Hams District Council joined forces with Plymouth and West Devon to create a Joint Local Plan covering the whole region. Plymouth will take the majority of the planned new homes, and other towns most of the remainder.

The JLP recommended that Stoke Fleming and villages like it allow for around 10 homes.

The Stoke Fleming steering group instead made provision for 30, in addition to the 48 that have been created on School Road in the past four years, because we believe that organic growth is beneficial.

At that point a speculative developer put forward a planning application for a further 19 homes, mainly age-restricted, on the seaward side of School Road, and that was approved by South Hams despite opposition from the parish council and local residents.

That development, which has not yet taken place, will be the fourth on School Road, and construction on the site we favoured would have been the fifth.

Local residents have put up with years of noise and congestion caused by construction traffic in the centre of the village and up Church Road and School Road.

We felt they are entitled to a respite, though we have also said we will reconsider when the Plan is reviewed in five years’ time. We believe that is a sensible approach in the circumstances.

As a result the plan is more modest than originally planned, but still reflects the overwhelming view of local residents, who are the ones who will decide on the plan when they vote on it in the forthcoming referendum. There would have been no point in developing a plan that did not win support when it came to a vote.

Cllr Struan Coupar

Stoke Fleming Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group